Lasah transferred

Important statement below from Friends of the Orangutans Malaysia on Lasah. Please read in full.

Lasah has been sent to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary near the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. This sanctuary is run by the Malaysian government. The three photos here were taken on Langkawi island, Lasah on his way out from where he was once used for tourism.

To supporters of the #FreeLasah campaign who have written to us to express concern regarding elephant tourism, use of bullhooks etc at the Kuala Gandah sanctuary, please know that the decision to transfer Lasah there was made by the government. We only found out Lasah had been transferred at the end of July through the media. We had not been contacted or informed by the wildlife department nor the environment ministry prior to the transfer.

To be clear, we had been campaigning for Lasah to be transferred to a sanctuary in Cambodia where no tourism takes place and we know elephants receive great care there [the sanctuary had asked not to be publicly named until we got confirmation Lasah could be transferred there].

We had also never heard back from the wildlife department nor the environment ministry after sending a proposal explaining the offer from the Cambodian sanctuary to accept Lasah, with all transfer costs covered.

We have not received any information on how Lasah is doing at Kuala Gandah and what his future life will look like so unfortunately at the moment we are unable to comment further.

We will be following up with the Environment Ministry of Malaysia on this and will bring you further updates.